The very favorable operational properties of nickel/hydrogen cells with positive nickel-oxide electrodes and negative hydrogen catalyst electrodes have attracted considerable attention in recent years. However, the practical application of this battery has been limited to its use as a storage battery in earth satellites. A broader use of this type of battery has generally been impeded by its high cost which is due to the use of negative fuel cell electrodes which contain noble metals, the use of conventional but expensive sintered nickel electrodes and the necessity for a pressure housing which is relatively expensive compared to normal battery cases. The overall state-of-the art in this technology is known for example from the publication "Power Sources 6" by D. H. Collins, editor, Academic Press London, New York, San Francisco 1977, pages 231 ff and 249 ff.
In order to broaden the field of application for nickel/hydrogen batteries, it has been proposed to employ positive nickel-oxide electrodes of large capacity per unit area (approximately 100 mAh/cm.sup.2) in combination with hydrophilic negative electrodes and associated with suitable adaptation of capillary forces or pore size distribution in electrolytically linked components. The common disposition of the components of an electrode stack of this type is shown in FIG. 1. For convenience and to facilitate understanding, a single stacking unit "n" is shown in the drawing. In the system illustrated there, two end plates 22 surround polypropylene gas diffusion screens 23 which lie in contact with negative hydrogen electrodes 25 which are separated by separators 26 from a central positive nickel-oxide electrode.
With the use of positive electrodes of higher capacity per unit area than conventional sintered nickel electrodes which have the capacity of only approximately 35 mAh/cm.sup.2, the current density is increased for identical discharge times. The large power capability of the positive and negative electrodes prevents any substantial power loss for discharges not exceeding the one-half hour rate while resulting in substantial cost saving due to the reduction of the number of electrodes. However, when the negative electrodes contain platinum, the cost of a battery cell of this type is still too high for many common applications.